1) Cuban tobacco is used to produce cigars. North Carolina tobacco is NOT. NC tobacco is used virtually exclusivly for cigarettes.
2) I have often heard tobacco farmers whine "its all we know and its all we have ever done." Well tough. Other people have had to make career changes before, especially at the turn of the century when techonolgy put them out of business. I bet there were some wonderful horse buggy and horse whip makers in NC. Luckily the government didnt support them and their product to keep them in business because it was "all that they knew."
I suggest ending ALL subsidies to not just tobacco farmers, but ALL farmers. Make it in the market in a competitive fashion or close up shop.
3) I will not question for one moment the importance of tobacco in NC history and how much of this state was built by tobacco money.
I also do not want to see the Imperial Federal Government (IFG) using its heavy hand to end tobacco farming or heavily curtail it in NC or anywhere else in the US. As stated above, I also don't want BILLIONS of tax dollars used to prop it up either. And don't deny for a minute that tobacco farmers are constantly whinning that their "government subsidy" isnt going to be "as big" this year and other such whinning. They are constantly bitching about it and complaining about the new auction rules for tobacco and the price to be paid.
Guess what farmers, you signed up to be the governments date at the dance. Don't bitch when Government leaves you at the table and doesnt pay enough attention to you.
There is 1 cash crop that they could switch to over night. But none dare attempt it here. That crop is industrial hemp. And you could smoke 10 acres of the stuff and never get a buzz so the "anti-drug" crowd doesnt have a leg to stand on in fighting it on 'drug' grounds.
The number of products that can be produced with it are almost uncountable.
I've heard experts on the subject say you could smoke a joint of it the size of a telephone pole without any buzz.
I must say your "buggy whip" analogy doesn't wash.
People stopped using horses & buggies because of the auto.
They weren't taxed, frowned upon, or otherwise coerced and cajoled into no longer using them.
Smokers are giving it up for those very reasons, plus the healthocrats' jihad against it.